After two years of trying, the Houthis have yet to hit an American warship. That’s not to say they haven’t been close.
As the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) made an evasive maneuver on Monday, an F/A-18E Super Hornet slid off an aircraft elevator, according to multiple reports. On Tuesday, the Houthis took credit for the attack that resulted in the loss of a Super Hornet.
Monday’s incident is among the most recent in a 45-day back-and-forth in which the U.S. and the Houthis have traded daily attacks, with the U.S. striking targets across Yemen, while the Houthis launch missiles and one-way attack drones at warships in the Red Sea. Destroyers have also fired their five-inch guns and Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) to take down Houthi ordnance before the current operation in the battle over the Red Sea. In November, USS Stockdale’s (DDG-106) crew shot down a Houthi drone with a five-inch gun due to a late detection. In February, USS Gravely (DDG-107) used its CIWS after a Houthi cruise missile got within one nautical mile of the ship.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has taken a more aggressive approach to its attacks in Yemen. As part of Operation Rough Rider, the U.S. has targeted Houthi infrastructure and leadership to deter and “disintegrate” the Houthis, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. The White House has said the operation will continue until freedom of navigation in the Red Sea is restored. While CENTCOM has not provided casualty numbers, Houthi and independent organizations claim the number of civilian deaths has increased compared to the strikes under the Biden administration.
Operation Rough Rider launched on March 15 with CENTCOM strikes on Houthi sites. The Houthis resumed their attacks on U.S. warships, which paused when the Israel-Hamas ceasefire went into effect in January.
Since then, U.S. Central Command forces, which include the Harry S. Truman and Carl Vinson carrier strike groups, have struck at least 1,000 Houthi targets, according to a Tuesday news release from the Pentagon.
At least 250 people have been killed by U.S. strikes on the Houthis, according to Al Jazeera, which gathered the numbers from Houthi-affiliated media reports. The BBC reported Monday that 68 African migrants were killed in a U.S. strike on Yemen targeting the Houthis.
“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations. We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do,” reads a Sunday CENTCOM release.
The U.S. has not commented on which leaders were targeted or whether they were killed.
“These strikes have killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders, including senior Houthi missile and UAV officials,” reads the Sunday CENTCOM release.
The Houthis are backed by Iran, which helps supply the group with weaponry, Nadwa Al-Dawsari, an associate fellow at the Middle East Institute, told USNI News in an email. The Department of Defense refers to the Houthis as an Iran proxy group.
“The IRGC and Hezbollah commanders are on the ground managing attacks against ships as well as Israel. But the Houthis have the potential to act on their own in the future even if Iran’s support is neutralised,” Al-Dawsari said in her email.
CENTCOM has said the Houthis have launched fewer ballistic missile launches and drone attacks, but did not provide complete data.
Since Operation Rough Rider began, the Houthis have fired back at the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group. While CENTCOM generally has not acknowledged the strikes against the strike group, social media posts from CENTCOM and Truman commanding officer Capt. Christopher “Chowdah” Hill show ongoing operations and exercises indicating that the ships have not been damaged by any Houthi weaponry, despite claims of victory by the group.
Neither CENTCOM nor the Pentagon have since commented on any of the strikes against Truman since a March 17 press conference in which Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the director of operations for CENTCOM, told reporters that the Houthis missed Harry S. Truman by “over 100 miles.”
It’s difficult to determine how successful the U.S. has been in degrading the Houthis since the March 15 strikes, Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told USNI News.
Who are the Houthis?
The Houthis are a Zaidi Shiite movement that began fighting Yemen’s government in 2004 over regional grievances. In 2014, the group reached Sanaa, sparking an all-out civil war between the Houthis and the Yemeni government over control of the country, Asher Orkaby, a research associate at Harvard University, said during a March talk for the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies.
The group initially had legitimate grievances but has become an autocracy controlled by the Houthi tribe, Orkaby said.
The Houthis’ military capabilities have increased with the addition of modern weaponry, Salah Ali Salah wrote for the Yemen-based think tank Sanaa Center.
“This has enabled them to shift from guerrilla tactics to hybrid methods that blend simple, traditional combat techniques with advanced capabilities and strategies, granting them a long military reach that allows them to exert influence and play a broader role in the region,” Salah wrote.
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, are anti-western and anti-Zionist, Sadeq Al-Wesabi, a senior fellow at the center, said during the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies talk. They believe they have a divine right to govern, even as a global power, and have ambitions to control Mecca and Medina. The two cities are the holiest in Islam and are both located in Saudi Arabia.
“This is the dangerous idea that the international community … is not aware of,” Al-Wesabi said.
The ongoing U.S. strikes on the Houthis may embolden them, he said. There is a concern that the strikes, as well as the increasing attention to the group, might legitimize them.
The Houthis are using propaganda surrounding the strikes to influence the Yemeni people, Orkaby said. By posting in English on social media, Houthis are also likely trying to reach an English-speaking population.
Yemen is facing a humanitarian crisis due to the fighting between the Houthis and the Yemeni government. Approximately 62 percent of Yemeni people experience “inadequate food consumption,” according to a quarterly review by the Sanaa Center.
More Targets
CENTCOM is expanding its list of Houthi targets to include its military power and its financial sources, Taleblu said.
“By continuing to target the terror group’s illicit financial networks aided by Tehran with sanctions as well as domestic infrastructure, the U.S. aims to keep the terror group on its back foot,” Taleblu said. “But so long as CENTCOM does not crack down on the supply side of the equation given the Houthi reliance on Iranian tech and equipment for medium-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship systems, the group will continue to be a menace in the Red Sea.”
The Houthis have publicized approximately 150 funerals on social media, Yemeni expert Mohammed Albasha told USNI News on Monday. Albasha, who authors the risk analysis publication Basha Report, has tracked 59 waves of U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
“The Houthi threat will not simply disappear,” Albasha told USNI News in March. “The key question is whether to address the Houthis in North Yemen now—while they still resemble post-1989 Iran following the Iran-Iraq War, having only just begun developing their Scud missile program with help from Libya’s [Muammar] Gaddafi and an indigenous UAV program—or to wait three decades until North Yemen under Houthi control evolves into the equivalent of the Iran we see in 2025, complete with nuclear ambitions, a network of armed proxies, and advanced missile and space capabilities.”
Despite the increased escalation from U.S. strikes, it does not appear that a ground invasion is likely, Albasha said.
“Still, the U.S. goal is not to overthrow the Houthi regime in Sana’a or directly intervene in Yemen’s internal affairs,” he said in an email. “Rather, it seeks to protect U.S. national security and restore free navigation in the Red Sea—vital to global trade.”
